The Copper Key was just recently approved by the L.A. City Planning Commission for 257 Spring St. in DTLA. According to public records, the cozy tapas restaurant will have a 760 square-foot dining room and bar area and a nearly 1,700 square-foot kitchen.
Co-owner Michael Duddie says the restaurant will offer a rotating menu of tapas, appetizers, small plates, cocktails, beer and wine. The example menu submitted to the city includes an extensive wine list plus dishes like spicy tuna on crispy rice, short rib crostini, mini blue lump crab cake, chicken meatballs in roasted tomato sauce, slow cooked salmon, meyer lemon meringue tart, and strawberry reduction with coconut cream.
“We want it to be almost an amenity for the local people in that neighborhood. That corner has gone kind of dead and people of the Douglas building were counting on the previous restaurant, which was a beautiful place, but it didn’t make it. It was a bit ahead of its time,” Duddie shares.
The Copper Key began as a catering and events company founded by Duddie and Chef Guus Wickenhagen. Chef Wickenhagen has worked in Michelin Star and award-winning kitchens, and has created menus for world-renown restaurants in Amsterdam, Rome, St. Petersburg, London, Barcelona, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Duddie is an L.A.-based hospitality expert that has been behind wildly popular destinations like Mirabelle on Sunset and Supperclub Los Angeles.
The Copper Key’s catering clients have included the likes of Variety, Forbes, Netflix, Hulu, Sony, and many more.
“The new restaurant is also nice for our catering staff. It’ll create more opportunities for shifts and work for people,” Duddie adds.
According to Duddie, the new restaurant should be open by the fourth quarter.
